The Settop Box Is Beginning to Disappear

HBO just launched an OTT service to the Nordic countries - huge move, not tied to cable, presaging what is about to come. Something like 30% of viewing is now off TV, and tends to be excerpts not the whole title. The Smart TVs finally have a sufficient built-in capabiltyy to enable direct to TV over IP without STB. Something like 200M will ship in the next 18 months, growing to 50% of all flat TV shipments by 2016. Google plans to sell off the settop box business from Motorola, preferring more open platforms and knowing that the cable providers prefer to lock-in their customers. All of these means the disruption is about to become painful to the incumbents.